ArcGIS Solutions symbols now have a repo on GitHub

ArcGIS Solutions, which include Local Government, Utilities, Intelligence, and Military, to name a few, now have a GitHub Repo dedicated to symbols used in our templates. The first symbol set in the repo is the SIGACT symbols used in the Incident Analysis Template.

The SIGACT Incident symbols are a set of point symbols designed to indicate a location where an incident occurred. These symbols have been tested by experts in the military field, and are designed to be clear and used with little assistance of a legend. The symbols are designed at 18×18 pixels.

The Solutions Symbols are available in three formats:

Style File: this ArcGIS format allows you to import the .PNG marker symbols into ArcMap as a group.

SVG: a folder of .SVG files designed to be edited in vector graphics programs.

PNG: a folder of .PNG files designed to be edited in raster graphics programs.

How to import the .style into ArcMap from the GitHub Repo:

From the styles folder of the repo, download the .style file to a location on your computer.

In ArcMap, add the style file to your map document through the Style Manager.

The symbols in the style will now be available when you change the symbology on a point layer.

How to create your own symbols:

Draw the symbol in the vector graphics editor of your choice.

Save the symbol as a Scalable Vector Graphic (.SVG) file.

Using the SVGtoPNG.bat file in the \solutions-symbology-data-master\tools folder (in the GitHub repo) you can create a folder of .PNGs from your .SVG files in one step. Edit the SVGtoPNG.bat file to point to your folder locations.

With a point feature class in your ArcMap document, open the Symbol Selector by double clicking on your point feature in the ArcMap table of contents.

Click the Edit Symbol button on the right side of the Symbol Selector.

In the Symbol Property Editor, click the Type drop down menu and click Picture Marker Symbol.

Navigate to your folder of PNGs and select the first PNG you want to add to your style file.

Make sure to adjust the size of the symbol in ArcMap. ArcMap uses points while other graphics programs use pixels. For example, the SIGACT Incident Symbols were developed at 18×18 pixels. When converted to points they should be imported into ArcMap at 13.5×13.5 points. If you do not convert the symbols they may not render as well as you would like. To convert pixels to points for importing into ArcMap, follow this formula, where 72 is equal to pixels per inch and 96 is equal to the standard computer monitor resolution:

Return to the Symbol Selector dialog and click Save as.

Navigate to your newly created Style File and add a name for your newly added symbol.

Click Finish. Repeat this process to add all of your symbols to your style file.